Articles containing abrasive components such as particles are known in the art. Such articles may be used for cleaning a variety of surfaces; especially those surfaces that tend to become soiled with difficulty to remove stains and soils.
Such articles may comprise a substrate and a plurality of abrasive particles where the abrasive particles are disposed either on the surface of the substrate or within the substrate such that the abrasive particles at least partially protrude from at least one surface and the substrate during use. Examples of substrates that might include such abrasive particles include nonwoven articles including disposable wipes, paper towel, floor wipes, home care napkins, beauty care napkins, and baby wipes. Examples of abrasive particles include inorganic particles such as carbonate salt, clay, silica, silicate, shale ash, perlite and/or organic particles such as polymeric beads comprised of polypropylene, PVC, melamine, urea, polyacrylate and derivatives.
When used as a component of a nonwoven article, many commonly known abrasive particles may not be fully satisfactory. The abrasive particles may separate from the rest of the article, in particular while scouring is exercised with the article. This may lead to inefficient cleaning and to unacceptable deposition of particles on the surface to be cleaned. Separately, the abrasive particles may move or “roll” while scouring, relative to the substrate, again leading to a loss of their abrasive cleaning efficiency.
The inventors have discovered that this could be alleviated by the use of particles having specific shape. This shape may be expressed as the “Solidity” of the particles. Selecting particles of the specified solidity may lead to both improvements in extent to which the particles are retained by the substrate, and improvements in cleaning by preventing “rolling” of the particles and maintaining the orientation of the particles, relative to the substrate and therefore relative to the surface being cleaned, during scouring.
Also, maintaining the orientation of the particles relative to the substrate may generate less damage to the surface to be cleaned.
The performance of the abrasive particles improves when the particles are bound to the substrate. When the particles are not physically immobilized on or in the substrate, the performance may decrease and the abrasive particles may fall off the sheet before or during use, creating an undesirable residue on the target surface and the hands of the user. When glues are used to bind the particles, the glue often covers a significant fraction of the particles, hindering its effectiveness and scrubbing performance. When the amount of glue is minimized, the adhesion of particles on the substrate may be ineffective, especially upon usage. Therefore it is highly desirable to provide a particle with a shape engineered to deliver both good scrubbing and self adhesion on the substrate, via mechanical anchoring.